8 amazing people who are rethinking the way you use technology

Kenzo Digital

Kenzo Digital is a director and artist dedicated to synthesizing new narrative forms by unifying traditional storytelling with groundbreaking technology. He is best known for his collaborative work with Beyonce, including her video-driven 2011 Billboard Awards performance and the United Nations’ World Humanitarian Day 2012 project, “I Was Here” which was recently nominated for an MTV VMA Award and broke social media records with 2.76 billion media impressions. Some of his current projects including collaborating with Google robotics company Bot & Dolly.

Raghava KK

Named by CNN as one of the 10 most remarkable people in 2010, Raghava KK is a multidisciplinary artist and entrepreneur working at the intersection of art, technology, and education. His iPad art book Pop-it, launched at TED Global in 2011, presents children with multiple perspectives on the concept of the ideal family. He is presently in New York working on his creativity startup, Flipsicle, a web platform that shakes up everything through visual perspectives.

Sir Bertrand Piccard

Born into a dynasty of explorers and scientists who have conquered the heights and depths of our planet, Bertrand Piccard made the first ever non-stop round-the-world balloon flight. Piccard aims to combine science and adventure in order tackle some of the great challenges of our times. By initiating the Solar Impulse project and aiming to fly round the world in a solar airplane, he is seeking to promote clean technologies that help conserve our planet’s natural resources.

Thomas Dolby

Thomas Dolby has crafted a career blending music and technology. His early hit songs, “She Blinded Me With Science” and “Hyperactive!,” and his keyboard and studio production work garnered numerous awards and five Grammy nominations. Dolby also started Beatnik Inc. and licensed technology to Nokia for the first embedded polyphonic ringtone engine for mass-market devices. His first new studio album in two decades, A Map of the Floating City, received critical acclaim and was accompanied by the self-created, multi-user social networking game The Floating City. Dolby recently completed his first film, The Invisible Lighthouse.

Pauline van Dongen

After graduating from the Academy of the Arts in the Netherlands, in 2010, Pauline van Dongen began a womenswear label under her own name. Nearly five years (and five collections) later, van Dongen stands at the forefront of a synthesis of two seemingly disparate, but equally creative fields: fashion design and solar power. Integrating circuits and solar panels into her textiles, van Dongen represents a fashionable and energy-efficient future for wearable technology.

Mick Ebeling

After reading about a boy in South Sudan who lost both his arms in shielding himself from a bomb’s blow, Mick Ebling set off with a 3D printer to make him a prosthetic limb. He also instructed the community on how to produce one prosthetic limb a week. Now “Project Daniel” is giving hope to more than 50,000 other amputees in the region.

Daniel Schoonover and Andrew Smiley

iWinks, a San Francisco-based company, is comprised of engineer duo Daniel Schoonover and Andrew Smiely, who have been working since 2009 to investigate lucid dreaming through wearable technology. Lucid dreaming is the concept of becoming aware that you’re dreaming within a dream. This duo set out to create a wearable headband device called Aurora that helps people have lucid dreams and control them, and ultimately explore what’s possible in the vastly uncharted territory of slumberland.

Joey Hudy

Joey Hudy is a 16-year-old student with precocious, DIY engineering sensibilities that have created inspiring inventions including a dog jacket that changes lights based on how active your dog is called Dawg, a marshmallow cannon, and LED Arduino Shields. His next goal is to create “smart” glasses that work by reading human thoughts. His conceptual smart glasses include prescription lenses, built-in headphones, a 3D-camera and sensor that can read gesture control, plus EEG sensors that monitor brainwaves and respond accordingly. Hudy proves that the world of technology exploration is not reserved just for seasoned vets, and that youthful minds can innovate just as much, if not more.

To check out other passion projects or submit your own for a chance to win $50,000 to embark on your mission, visit expeditiongranted.com. It’s time to challenge the notion of exploration and realize that discovery in the 21st century is the creation of something new in any sense of the word!

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